Sunday, May 17, 2015

HOP DIGGITY

It's no secret that I like (love) beer. My Irish and German heritage and the fact that I was raised in Wisconsin made it inevitable.

While my husband was busy planting our traditional garden of potatoes and tomatoes, I was planting hops. I don't plan on brewing at this point, I'm just intrigued with the hop plant. After doing some internet research, I ordered my rhizomes and anxiously awaited their arrival like a first time mother. Once I planted them, I ran out everyday to see if they had broken ground. To my delight, I can report that all 4 of my babies, I mean rhizomes, have delivered plants, I mean sprouted plants. As these plants continue to grow they become a climbing vine. Hops grow during the day and twist in a clockwise fashion following the sun at night. I might just have to grab a lawn chair, a flashlight ... and a cooler to witness the night activity. I planted chinook rhizomes. Chinook is a very bitter; medium-heavy aroma hop with a spicy, resiny, grapefruit character. If all goes well, I will be harvesting the hop cones around mid-August. I'll keep you posted.

SIDE NOTES

Definition of a Hop: plural: the ripe dried pistillate catkins of a perennial north-temperate zone twining vine (Humulus lupulus) of the hemp family used especially to impart a bitter flavor to malt liquors.

Wisconsin's bars outnumber grocery stores almost three to one.

Wisconsin has 5.88 bars per 10,000 people.

In the 1860s, Wisconsin produced 75 percent of the nation’s hops.

I've created a scrapbook for all the breweries and tasting room I've visited.

I kept spelling rhizomes with a "y" instead of an "i" throughout this post.